On The Trail

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Maddie has done well! She had 3 projects going to State Fair and is very excited about that! We spent the morning in the snack shop then Maddie went on to do her Junior Superintendent shift in the 4H Building. Brian and I walked around the other buildings for a bit but ended up back at the 4H building for quite a while. We have decided that we must just give in and bring chairs, books and knitting along. We know the fair like the back of our hands now and it doesn't change enough year to year to keep us busy. So.....knitting and reading in a shady spot it will be on Saturday!!

Great Blue Heron on its way to State!

Achievement book on its way too

And the chalk drawing...not that you can see it well here! We need to do some work on this though. At the very least it needs a fixative put on it and perhaps a frame. Research on State Fair rules is needed!!

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Today was an all day stay up at the Fairgrounds for 4H Judging Day! Maddie turned in her projects and then helped as a Junior Superintendent in the afternoon. Momma helped at the master sheet turn in table and Daddy helped put the bubble machine back together. It was long and a bit boring in spots but we all had fun!

Maddie turning in her photos

Painting, chalk drawing and reverse tie dye t-shirt here!

More talking about the art and t-shirt!

The dalak backpack

Time to talk about her achievement book

Cahtting about her tree id book

Time fto be a Junior Superintendent

Our Club Banner-not done but a work in progress

That was our busy Saturday! The Fair opens on Tuesday and things will be busy for the rest the week!

Monday, August 7, 2017

First day of high school is in the books! Maddie did an excellent job of staying on track and getting down to business! History, Biology, Algebra readiness test, Latin, Rhetoric, and Vocabulary were all accomplished on top of dealing with a full house of kids!! She did great and will knock it out of the park this year!!

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Friday night we picked Maddie up at Camp Fowler. This was a lot of fun because we got to see their closing ceremony and video then have a hot dog dinner with the campers and staff. Maddie enjoyed having an extra hour or so at camp!

dancing and singing

Uncle Kent assuring us that Maddie's favorite part of the week (sliding down a waterfall) could be explained!

Maddie receiving her polar bearing patch

Hug circle

Then it was up to camp at Lewey Lake for the weekend! It rained down on us all night on Friday but let up about 10 on Saturday morning. We had a lovely campsite right on the edge of a small creek that was very noisy on saturday after all the rain!

The small creek behind our campsite

View of our campsite from the creek

new canopy!

Bri making eggs in the rain in his new pan!

Maddie being a teenager....

On Sunday morning I made a couple of attempts to get Maddie up and moving so we could be on our way sooner rather than later. A few gentle "Maaaddddiieeee"s did not seem to do the trick at all so I tried "Hey Maddie. I saw a salamander already!" and BAM! she was out of the tent. So next time I know what to do. That little guy was moving pretty fast so I could potentially use it with no salamander in evidence if needed!

So that was our wet weekend! The salamander liked the rain at least! Tomorrow is the start of high school around here......

Sunday, July 30, 2017

This morning we got up and headed to Camp Fowler for church, brunch and checking Maddie in for her week at camp. It is beautiful up there as always. And, with what seems to be rapidly becoming a tradition, Maddie went with a cold. I am betting she will be better by tomorrow morning though! While Momma and Daddy waited in line with books and knitting Maddie was playing "carpetball", meeting up with old friends and making new ones too! We also got a peek at the schedule. She is going to be a busy girl!

We got through the check in line in record time and Maddie was assigned the Woodpecker cabin. She was the first one in the door and her pick of bunks. Later Norah arrived and we got pictures of them together. They aren't too excited to be there or anything!!

Now we have a quiet, quiet week!! This is good though, Momma has to get things ready because ninth grade starts next Monday!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Today was the day! I rousted everyone out of bed early and we got on the road to drop Maddie off for the ADK Club and Ausable Aquatic Stewardship Program for the week. She will be learning about watersheds, taking water samples and learning about macroinvertebrates.

The ADK Loj where the kids met up with the instructors. They will be staying in lean tos for the week!

It doesn't look it here but she truly is excited!!

Brian and I were able to met Seth and Matt(? I think that was his name...poor guy!) when we dropped Maddie off and they were both great guys. The funny part is that Maddie has on her Camp Fowler shirt and Seth said "Hey! Wait a minute! I never heard of that place until last week! We shared a campsite with some teens on a trip from Camp Fowler. I had my own group of teens." so that was a very cool thing right off the bat. This is only the 3rd year they have offered this camping trip/class combination and Seth explained it had started in memory of a friend of his who worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a aquatic biologist. They want to get kids excited about that in her memory. Then Seth asked where we were from and when we gave him that answer he said "Hey! I know someone from there. She worked here for a while but now she is being a forester intern up North." so its a small world. 2 connections in less than 15 minutes. Shortly after that we took off to let Maddie have some breathing space but remembered part way down the driveway that she may want the portable chair we packed in the car. We turned back around and when I got out of the car to go in and ask she met me at the door with a HUGE grin on her face...much better than the one in the picture so I am glad we went back! And the answer was no, she didn't want the chair, only 2 other people had brought chairs and she had enough to carry already. She can flop down on the edge of the lean to or on an erratic..all good!

Then Brian and I headed off on our own excursion and took a nature walk at the Brewster Peninsula Nature Trails.

So many mushrooms! It has been so wet lately...

Indian Pipes!

Huge mushroom...I wasn't kidding about the wet!!

Cool bridge and we did walk over it! Brian went to step out on it then turned back to me and said "STAY IN THE MIDDLE!" Hmmm.....

West Lake Placid

Looking off the other side of the bridge

My favorite guy!

Whiteface Mountain in the distance!

That was fun then we did the touristy thing and went into Lake Placid to check it out and have lunch. We decided during this trip that if we win the lottery our house will be on the other side of the Adirondacks away from the tourists!! The odds of this happening are so slim we might as well dream...I mean one actually needs a ticket to win.

We suspect this is trucked in from the ice rink.....

The high jumps from the Olympics! This is from the road.

And now we are home! Brian will be going back later in the week to pick up our camping scientist and see how her trip was!